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Intermediate Snowshoe - Skyline Ridge & Tye Peak

A rare sunny day to and around a lovely alpine lake with 6 inches of soft, fluffy snow over a hard crust.

Gay Miller Gay Miller
February 02, 2020
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • The trail to the lake was quite packed down. Snowshoes, as long as you stayed on the groomed trail, were totally optional. Once off trail, however, snowshoes were a must otherwise one would do some serious post-holing! (There was plenty of evidence of that.) Since it had snowed the night before, there was plenty of fresh powder atop a hard crust layer that would collapse just when you thought it was going to hold you. 

The sun was out so the fresh powder sparkled on the ground and in the tree branches. It was magical! We went up the standard groomed route on the ascent, stopping frequently as we were all over-dressed for the sunny conditions, went east to the tower when we got to lake level and then up the ridge. We stopped roughly 120 vertical feet below  and south of Peak 5447 since one person in the group was uncomfortable with the steepness of the slope, retreated a few steps and changed our trajectory to a less steep angle, working our way westward to the lake where we had a pleasant lunch in the sun with gray jays to keep us entertained. After lunch, we circumnavigated the lake before heading back down. On the descent, we took off through the trees to enjoy the fun of kicking our own steps through the light, fluffy powder - so rare in this area - and eventually intersecting and reconnecting with the standard groomed trail further below.